THE surname of the Scholastic, which was given him, is a proof of the
reputation which he acquired, by his penetrating genius, and by his
extensive learning, both sacred and profane. He presided for some time
in the catechetical school of Alexandria, but, to apply himself more
perfectly to the science of the saints, to which he had always
consecrated himself, his studies, and his other actions, he retired into
the desert, and became a bright light in the monastic state. St.
Athanasius assures us, in his life of St. Antony, that in the visits
which Serapion paid to that illustrious patriarch, St. Antony often told
on his mountain things which passed in Egypt at a distance; and that at
his death, he left him one of his tunics of hair. St. Serapion was drawn
out of his retreat, to be placed in the episcopal see of Thmuis, a
famous city of Lower Egypt, near Diospolis, to which Stephanus and
Ptolemy give the title of a metropolis. The name in the Egyptian tongue
signified a goat, which animal was anciently worshipped there, as St.
Jerom informs us. St. Serapion was closely linked with St. Athanasius in
the defence of the Catholic faith, for which he was banished by the
emperor Constantius; whence St. Jerom styles him a confessor. Certain
persons, who confessed God the Son consubstantial to the Father, denied
the divinity of the Holy Ghost. This error was no sooner broached, but
our saint strenuously opposed it, and informed St. Athanasius of this
new inconsistent blasphemy; and that zealous defender of the adorable
mystery of the Trinity, the fundamental article of the Christian faith,
wrote against this rising monster. The four letters which St. Athanasius
wrote to Serapion, in 359, out of the desert, in which at that time he
lay concealed, were the first express confutation of the Macedonian
heresy that was published. St. Serapion ceased not to employ his labors
to great advantage, against both the Arians and Macedonians. He also
compiled an excellent book against the Manichees, in which he shows that
our bodies may be made the instruments of good, and that our souls may
be perverted by sin; that there is no creature of which a good use may
not be made; and that both just and wicked men are often changed, the
former by falling into sin, the latter by becoming virtuous. It is,
therefore, a self-contradiction to pretend with the Manichees that our
souls are the work of God, but our bodies of the devil, or the evil
principle.[1] St..Serapion wrote several learned letters, and a treatise
on the Titles of the Psalms, quoted by St. Jerom, which are now lost. At
his request, St. Athanasius composed several of his works against the
Arians; and so great was his opinion of our saint, that he desired him
to correct, or add to them what he thought wanting. Socrates relates[2]
that St. Serapion gave an abstract of his own life, and an abridged rule
of Christian perfection, in very few words, which he would often repeat,
saying: "The mind is purified by spiritual knowledge, (or by holy
meditation and prayer,) the spiritual passions of the soul by charity,
and the irregular appetites by abstinence and penance." This saint died
in his banishment in the fourth age, and is commemorated on this day in
the Roman Martyrology. See his works, those of St. Athanasius in several
places, St. Jerom, Catall. c. 99; Socrates {641}, l. 4, c. 23; Sozom. l.
4, c. 9; Photius, Col. 85; Tillem. t. 8; Ceillier, t. 6, p. 36.
Footnotes:
1. A Latin translation of St. Serapion's book against the Manichees,
given F. Turrianus the Jesuit, is published in the Bibliotheca
Patrum, printed at Lyons. and in F. Canisius's Lectiones Antiquae, t.
5, part 1, p. 35. The learned James Basnage, who republished this
work of Canisius with curios additions and {notes}, has added the
Greek text, t. 1, p. 37.
2. Socrat. Hist. l. 4, c. 23.